Since 2016, I have been writing and speaking about healthcare inequities faced by widowed, divorced, separated, and always single adults as a result of inaccurate stereotypes of marital status and social support. My articles have appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Washington Post, Psychology Today, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Health Psychologist, and Quartz, among others. A book, Sick While Single: How Outdated Views of Marital Status and Social Support Drive Healthcare Inequity, is forthcoming from Yale University Press. I was interviewed on NPR's All Things Considered and gave a TEDx talk, "Sick While Single? Don't Die of Discrimination." I have also appeared on numerous podcasts, notably CURE, SOLO, and New Legacy Radio.

From 1979 until 2014, I taught at the University of Delaware, where I held a joint professorship in English and legal studies; I am now professor emerita. As a professor, I published three books with Yale University Press as well as dozens of articles about academic freedom. That work won awards from the American Library Association, the American Educational Research Association, the Gustavus Myers Center for Human Rights in North America, the American Civil Liberties Union (Delaware), and the Spencer Foundation, among others. I appeared on numerous radio and television talk shows, notably 20/20, Talk of the Nation, Radio Times, Fresh Air, and the Diane Rehm Show.

I serve on the boards of the International Singles Studies Association and the Bella DePaulo Foundation for the Empowerment of Single People, and I engage with the International Singlehood Advocacy Network. I am also a member of the Authors Guild and Singles Equality.
Non-professional memberships include the Cosmos Club (Washington, D.C.), the Rotary Club of Wilmington, Delaware (former secretary), and the Lincoln Club of Delaware (former president). As a lover of opera and classical music, I also have memberships and/or subscriptions at the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Washington National Opera, and Opera Delaware.